Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is very insightful. Oftentimes one hears the large theory but not the detail. I have always been of the view that the retail sector has been ignored by the local authorities and the enterprise development organisations. While the county enterprise boards were generally good organisations, they did not play a role in the retail sector at all. In my experience, there was no relationship between retailers and local authorities. Indeed, each viewed the other with both caution and scepticism and considered the other as nothing more than a cost centre. Even when one tried to bring them together, the lack of a proper structure meant that it did not really work.

I worked as a business consultant seven or eight years ago. In Northern Ireland, town centre retailers were given training in marketing, including through the internet, merchandising, mystery shopping and so forth, which was of enormous benefit to them.

Often the hands of retail organisations are somewhat tied because they represent both out-of-town and in-town retailers. I believe a carrot-and-stick approach is needed to bring retailers back into the centre of towns. One of the competitive advantages of out-of-town centres like Blanchardstown is free parking, which a town like Navan cannot offer. It might be worth rating parking spaces. In that way, the parking spaces would become a cost to the large out-of-town retailers, who would then have to charge for them. That would go some way towards equalising the playing field. However, there is no doubt that such a suggestion would be very unattractive to out-of-town retailers. We also need to have a more progressive rates system that takes into account the profitability of businesses. That would ensure that small businesses can compete against larger companies such as Tesco, even if only for an initial three-year period.

Is the blueprint that Retail Excellence Ireland used for pilot towns such Carlow easily accessible to other non-pilot towns that might wish to run with it themselves?